21
HUX
“You’re what?” Lucas pushes himself against the table. I think he would bolt if he could, but there are rows of Rebellion Grass between him and the door.
“Was that really necessary, Hux? I should have pulled your plug again.” Fortis shakes his head.
“Hux? You have a name for Doc, too?” I don’t know which I find more confusing, that the Merk is somehow friends with Doc—if you can call it that—or that the Merk is no Merk at all.
“I apologize, Fortis, if I have spoken in error.”
“Did you or didn’t you? Speak in error?” Lucas looks at his wrist, as if Doc is somehow there.
“I believe Fortis and I had agreed that at some point it would become beneficial to reveal certain truths about ourselves,” says the voice.
“Yourselves? What’s the truth about you, Doc? Or do you have more names I don’t know?” Lucas looks annoyed.
“I have been called just over one hundred derivatives of my longer name. Would you care to hear them? It is a slightly different query.” The familiar refrain comforts me.
“No, actually.” He puts down his cup.
“Leave Hux alone. He’s a good enough fellow. I was the one who said you wouldn’t agree to meet me, if you knew who I really was.”
“Why is that? Who are you?” I can feel Lucas’s turmoil radiating into the rest of us. He’s as contagious as ever, only now what he gives me is closer to a chill than anything else.
“Does it really matter? It shouldn’t. What should matter to you is this: you an’ me, all of us—we’re goin’ to take out the Icon.”
“Excuse me?”
“The Icon, at what used to be the Observatory. High time we did somethin’ about it.”
“You’re wrong. We can’t do anything. The Icon can’t be destroyed. Nothing works or lives anywhere near it. No one could get close enough to touch it.” Lucas isn’t buying it.
Fortis continues calmly. “I know more than you might think, and you might learn somethin’ if you stop and listen. The Icon is how the Embassy controls the Hole. The Icon is how the House of Lords controls the Embassy. Controls everythin’. Everythin’ comes back to the Icon.” Fortis shakes his head.
“Not everything,” says Lucas.
“Actually, the Icon does control everythin’.” Fortis winks at me. “But not everyone, Doloria.”
“Everything and everyone,” I insist. “Even us. Here we are, powerless. Controlled by the Embassy, like everyone else.”
“I won’t argue with you there, Dol. But think about this—how do you suppose you came to have your name? Amoris? Doloris?”
“Because she survived The Day?” Lucas frowns at him.
“Not entirely.”
“Because she has special abilities, then?” He tries again.
Fortis shrugs.
“What are you saying, Fortis?” Lucas rubs his hands through his lank blond hair, frustrated.
I lose my patience. “I don’t know much about the Icon, but even I know we can’t get near it. We’d die, like everyone else.” The images from the Silent Cities flood my mind again, and I focus on the cup in front of me, trying not to see them.
“Maybe. Maybe not. Look. I’ll tell you what. We’ll pay a visit to the Icon. Have a look around for yourself, let me know what you think.”
“Now?” I don’t believe him. I don’t want to. “Stop playing games with us, Fortis. Tell us what you know. What does this have to do with us? What are we?”
“You feel things, Dol. All four of you. You feel things in a most particular fashion. More than other people. More than anyone.”
“And?”
“And it’s not just an accident. Those feelings, those emotions are what make you powerful. So all I ask is that you have a little look-see. You might be surprised.”
“How do you know what we’ll find at the Icon? How can you be sure of anything?” I’m so overwhelmed, and so tired. I don’t know if I want to scream or cry.
“I can’t. But I know more about you than anyone else, love.” Fortis pulls a book—my book—out of the inside of his jacket.
“You see, I wrote the book. Well, Hux an’ me, when you get right down to it.”
The book about me. The Book of Icons. The book the Ambassador killed my Padre for.
A doctor wrote it. That’s what the Padre said.
Did he mean Doc?
My mind is reeling and I reach for the book—just as Fortis pulls it away.
“You want your precious book back, you’ll have to earn it. Take a little walk with me first.”
“Why should I?” My eyes narrow. Lucas shifts uncomfortably, next to me.
“Because I blew up the Tracks for you. Nearly lost a finger. And a deal is a deal.”
EMBASSY CITY TRIBUNAL VIRTUAL AUTOPSY: DECEASED PERSONAL POSSESSIONS TRANSCRIPT (DPPT)
CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET
Performed by Dr. O. Brad Huxley-Clarke, VPHD
Note: Conducted at the private request of Amb. Amare
Santa Catalina Examination Facility #9B
See adjoining Tribunal Autopsy, attached.
DPPT (CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE)
Catalogue at Time of Death includes:
38. One 10-cm-wide strip of muslin, splattered with what appears to be dried human blood.
Tear is consistent with wrist binding worn by the Deceased.
Will be scanned and sent to Embassy Labs for analysis, as per protocol #83421.